Police at an anti-fracking protest in Balcombe, West Sussex, pushed back demonstrators on Wednesday afternoon to allow the entry of an articulated lorry carrying pipes. It was the first successful delivery of equipment to the site since the protest began last week.

Earlier in the day two people were arrested over the ongoing protests against plans to drill for oil at a site a few miles outside the village.

The pair – a man and a woman – had glued themselves together at the gates of the site in an attempt to prevent machinery from being brought through the gates. Sussex police said the pair had been arrested under section 241 of the Trade Union Labour Relations Act.

It brought to 25 the total number of arrests at the site since last week. Police said there were 75 officers at the site on Wednesday.

At about 4.15pm the police escorted a lorry bearing pipes through to the site, to cries of "you are murderers" from the protesters. The police mobilised quickly and the protesters were moved out of the way without violence.

The energy company Cuadrilla plans to drill a vertical and perhaps a further horizontal oil well at the site in the hope of releasing oil from the shale rocks under the surface. It has said it does not intend to use hydraulic fracturing but may resort to the method if the oil is not otherwise accessible.

The company is in possession of the permits from the Environment Agency needed for exploratory drilling.

Protesters said there had been only two officers on site overnight, when no deliveries or machinery to the site were expected.

On Wednesday the numbers of police and media present were about equal to the number of protesters. Police temporarily blocked approach roads during the afternoon as protesters lined up to block the road to traffic.

Amid chants of "stop the frack" and "shame on you" and a background of drumming, the protesters were peacefully walked back to the gates by two lines of police, and traffic was allowed to resume along the road.

About one in four of the vehicles passing along the road, just outside Balcombe station, tooted their horns in support of the protesters as they passed.

Vanessa Vine, one of the campaigners, said it was vital for local people to show their support. "We really need to show how strong the opposition here. People are telling me how much they support the protest. It is appalling how little say local people have had over what is happening on their doorstep."

One village resident, who did not want to be named, said: "I'm not very happy about the fracking, but I don't want a camp of tents here either."

Meanwhile, the former government energy policy adviser who faced criticism for suggesting fracking should take place in "desolate" areas of the north-east has said he actually meant "unloved" areas of the country such as parts of the north-west.

Lord Howell, who was an adviser on energy policy until April, said that the north-east of England was not "in his mind at all" but that he meant "more the drilling going on off the Lancashire coast".

The Tory peer, who is George Osborne's father-in-law, was forced to apologise after saying in the Lords there was "plenty of room" for fracking in the north-east without adverse environmental impact.